Your Harbour
by Muffytaj
Summary: A Sokka POV fic, exploring his relationship with Katara, and how hard it can be when your youger sister is more powerful than you.
1. Sokka's side

**Your Habour**

There are two things that Sokka would die to protect. Three if you count the world but, as he figured that most people would die to save the world, that isn't really all that special.

He would die to save his village, if he thought it would help.

Some days he would die to save Aang, other days he thinks he'd just wait for a less annoying reincarnation. He might die in order to kill a large number of firebenders, but only if it was a super-massive amount and he'd really prefer to live through that. Once or twice he wished he would die in order to end the embarrassment of being a teenage boy, but that quickly passed. He was never quite sure if he would die for these things, and hoped it never came to the test.

He would die to protect Katara, if only she would let him. But she never would.

It's painful, he reflected (he does reflect sometimes, but it is rare, and usually only when he's standing guard alone staring at the wheeling stars overhead and listening to Katara or Aang cry in their sleep) to realise that your baby sister is in huge danger, and even more painful to realise that there is little you can do to help. She is more powerful than him, and would deem it_ her_ duty to protect _him_, and that thought hurts deep down right next to the thought that he should have been able to save mum.

"Take care of your sister." Dad had said, and left. "Take care of the village." The other men had said, before they sailed off to die. He just wished they'd told him _how_.

Sokka tried, he really did. He beat up Zuko, and banished Aang (okay so that turned out to be a mistake, but at least he tried) and tried his best to keep them fed and out of danger. He listened to her ramblings about random pretty boys, and tried to keep the creepy psychopaths away from her. He used science to protect his magical sister, and wondered why it nearly always failed.

Stupid magic. Stupid Avatar. Stupid Fire Nation. Stupid war. Stupid Katara, so ready to save the world.

He caught her when she flew too close to the sun, held her whilst she cried tears of frustrated hopes, swung his weapon at the phantom monsters chasing them and wished he could do so much more. He was meant to protect, and ever since this crazy journey started he had been only the protected. And whilst he knew that Katara would always love him, even if he was totally useless, he wanted more than anything to be the one she looked to in times of need.

He would figure out how to protect her, one day. And that would be the day when he would stand tall in front of her, and know that he was truly being her elder brother.

And all would be well.


	2. Katara's turn

There are two constants in Katara's life. One is waterbending, and the flow of life that accompanies it. The feeling of power, so recently exploded into frightening and exhilarating extremes, is as much a part of her as breathing.

The other constant is Sokka, in all his exasperating glory. Sokka would never take her seriously, Sokka would never let her play with his weapons, Sokka would always be lazy, Sokka would always eat more than his fair share of the food, and Sokka would always, always be there.

Mother had always been there, but she was no longer a constant. Father might come back and take up his role as a constant, but there had been painful years where he wasn't, and Katara would always remember the time when he was not there.

Sokka would take whatever she could throw at him, much the same way water would continue flowing even if you kicked it until you collapsed. Any insult she threw at him would be met with an even more insulting reply, and every time she beat a goal he would already be ten steps ahead finishing the next one, looking over his shoulder and laughing at her.

There were few things more frustrating than an elder brother who didn't take you seriously, and Sokka reveled in teasing Katara to the point where she thought she hated him. But one moment she'd be glaring up at him, an instant away from stamping her feet in anger, and the next they would be back-to-back, surrounded by danger. She would charge forward with the self-confidence that comes from knowing that your back will always be protected. Love and hate were irrelevant, to those who were forever connected.

She saw nothing wrong in depending on Sokka so much, because that was the way it had always been. He might have been sub-par in forest hunting, and in the icy countries he might not know how to waterbend the landscape around them, but he was the ground beneath her feet, and the line that kept her tied to reality. He would grumble, and complain, and sometimes sulk when she wanted to go save the world, but he would be by her side anyway, eyeing off the thugs and bringing his blade down on any who strayed too close. He would tug at her hair, and shout at the world around them, and sleep too much, and he would always be there; a reminder that no matter how far Katara traveled, she would always, _always_ have a way home, and a family waiting there for her.

And with that, she was content.


End file.
